EXPRESSIONISM

By: Jayson Tibayan and John Albert Quinones

WHAT IS EXPRESSIONISM?

• Expressionism is the imposition on the outside world of

the describer’s concept of it.
• Reality, in general, has no meaning for an expressionist.
• Everything is brought forth from within one’s self.
• Everything is deliberately and purposefully distorted
since it comes from one’s point of view.
History of Expressionism
As a movement, the term expressionism usually denotes the late-19th century, early-
20th century schools of emotive or interpretive art, which emerged in Germany as a
reaction to the more passive style of Impressionism. The word expressionism was
first used in 1850, mostly to describe the paintings where an artist’s strong emotions
were clearly depicted. The popularity of Expressionism increased when Antonin
Matějček in 1910 coined the term. With this word the Czech art historian intended to
denote the opposite of Impressionism and indicate one of the main currents of art
that expresses highly subjective, personal, spontaneous self-expression typical of a
wide range of modern artists. Whereas the Impressionists sought to express the
majesty of nature and the human form through paint, the Expressionists, according to
Matějček, sought to express their feelings about what they saw.
Expressionism first emerged in 1905, when a group of four German students guided by 
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner founded the Die Brücke (the Bridge) group in the city of
Dresden. A few years later, in 1911, a like-minded group of young artists formed Der
Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) in Munich. Kandinsky and Franz Marc where its
founders, whilst Paul Klee and August Macke were amongst its members. These two
groups became the foundation of the German Expressionism movement. Since then,
Expressionism became a widely recognized form of modern art.
Expressionism's Father
Eighty-one-year-old Edvard Munch (pronounced Moohnk) was
the founder of the Expressionist school of painting. He was also
a legendary eccentric.
Munch was a highly neurotic, misogynous, inward-turning artist
who led the revolt of the '90s against the formal, detached,
analytical approach of the French Impressionists. Munch and
his followers, trying for the highest degree of personal,
emotional expression, deliberately set out to step up the
passionate style of Vincent van Gogh. Munch's first one-man
Berlin exhibition, in 1892, contained 55 screechingly colored,
cacophonously designed canvases. Munch's best-known
Expressionist contemporaries were Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein
and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
EXPRESSIONISM

• “Aesthetic movement in which the artist expresses

his inner experience through the free representation
of objective facts.”
• Individual intellectual conceptions—originated in
European painting and brought to US by painters
(the term and culture).
EXPRESSIONISM
+
• Most expressionists were also poets and these people could
transfer (or hope to) transfer their ideas from poetry to the people
through theater. 
• Confusion about the term, ‘expressionism,’ arose because it could
be used in literature, music, architecture, and art, along with
drama. 
• The term was first used by French painter, JulienAguuste Herve
in 2901, but it didn’t achieve general acceptance/usage until later.
TWO CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS

• Intense Subjectivism—the externalization of the

writer’s inner feelings
• Atmosphere of violence directed largely against
the family as the basis of society
GOALS OF EXPRESSIONISM

• Expressionism was characterized by intense subjectivism, a

violent antipathy to society and to families.
• Criticism of society by means of an analysis of its
hypocritical attitudes towards sex as well.
• To emote the broadest range of feelings, to express the
ecstasy of the playwright.
• Young men rebelling wrote of the conflicts between
generations, sexes, and classes.
• They wrote about taboo subjects, such as incest and patricide.
STYLE AND ART OF EXPRESSIONISM
1893
The Scream
Artist: Edvard Munch
Throughout his artistic career, Munch focused on scenes of death, agony,
and anxiety in distorted and emotionally charged portraits, all themes and
styles that would be adopted by the Expressionists. Here, in Munch's most
famous painting, he depicts the battle between the individual and society.
The setting of The Scream was suggested to the artist while walking along
a bridge overlooking Oslo; as Munch recalls, "the sky turned as red as
blood. I stopped and leaned against the fence...shivering with fear. Then I
heard the enormous, infinite scream of nature." Although Munch did not
observe the scene as rendered in his painting, The Scream evokes the
jolting emotion of the encounter and exhibits a general anxiety toward the
tangible world. The representation of the artist's emotional response to a
scene would form the basis of the Expressionists' artistic interpretations.
The theme of individual alienation, as represented in this image would
persist throughout the 20th century, captivating Expressionist artists as a
central feature of modern life.
1903
Der Blaue Reiter
Artist: Wassily Kandinsky
This breakthrough canvas is a deceptively simple image
- a lone rider racing across a landscape - yet it
represents a decisive moment in Kandinsky's
developing pictorial language. Here, the sun-dappled
hillside reveals a keen interest in contrasts of light and
dark as well as movement and stillness, all major
themes throughout his oeuvre. Constituting a link
between Post-Impressionism and the burgeoning
Expressionist movements, Kandinsky's canvas became
the emblem of the expressive possibilities embraced by
the Munich avant-garde. This is the eponymous work
from which the collective derived its name in 1911.
1909
Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-Conrat
Artist: Oskar Kokoschka
The esteemed art historians Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-
Conrat commissioned this portrait by Kokoschka for their
art collection. The colorful background and concentrated
gestures of the figures represent the couple as "closed
personalities so full of tension," as the artist once called
them. As in many of his portraits, Kokoschka focuses on
the inner drama of his subjects, here, using the couple's
nervous hands as a focal point of their anxiety. His
rendering depicts the way the artist perceived the
couple's psyche, not necessarily their physical,
naturalistic appearances. Kokoschka's emotional
representation is emblematic of the Expressionist style.
The swirling, abstract colors that obscure the background
and emerge around them are characteristic of
Kokoschka's frenetic, depthless renderings of space
throughout his oeuvre.
1911
Large Blue Horses
Artist: Franz Marc
The painter, printmaker, and watercolorist Marc was a key
member of Der Blaue Reiter, and is known for his use of animal
symbolism. This canvas belonged to a series of works that
centered on the theme of horses, which he regarded as emblems of
spiritual renewal. The lush colors, fracturing of space, and
geometric forms show the influence of Cubism and Robert
Delaunay's Orphism. However, while Marc was influenced by his
contemporaries, his emphasis on fantastic subjects derived from
the material world, such as the blue horses from this 1911
painting, is unique to his practice. For the artist, the movement
away from realistic depiction represented a turn towards the
spiritual, the emotional, and the authentic. As with many
Expressionists, color was symbolic rather than descriptive for
Marc. He drew upon the emotive qualities of his palette to convey
his vision of the spiritual blue beasts.
1912
Houses at Night
Artist: Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
After co-founding Die Brücke in Dresden, Schmidt-Rottluff
moved to the booming city of Berlin, where he painted
this abstracted rendering of a city block. The buildings
stagger apart from each other at odd angles over an eerily
empty street, evoking the alienation of modern urban
society. Even though Schmidt-Rottluff painted Houses at
Night, the influence of woodblock printing is clear; the
abstracted, minimalist shapes have a stark and graphic
quality similar to the artist's many woodblock works.
Here, the bright colors add to the primitive shapes of the
canvas, imbuing the scene with an underlying sense of
unease and estrangement. The pervasive disquiet was the
essence of the modern, urban realm for Expressionists.
The turn toward jagged forms and a bright, acidic palette
emphasized the artist's individual, avant-garde
interpretation of the street scene.
 Reference:
• Wikipedia.com
• https://www.theartstory.org/movement/expressionis
• “Expressionism.” The Reader‘s Encyclopedia of World
Drama. John Gassner and Edward Quinn. New York:
Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1969. Print.
• “Expressionism.” The Oxford Companion to American
Literature sixth edition. Phillip W. Leininger. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1995. Print.
• Oskar Kokoschka. Expressionist Texts. New York: PAJ
Publisher, 1986. Print.
• “Expressionism.” The Cambridge Guide to Theater.
Professor James Brandon. New York. Cambridge
University Press. 1995. Print.